A C. T U. A L. L Y

Feeling stressed?   A little depressed?   Tired of your nest?   Bored with how you’re dressed?   I have the perfect solution:   window shopping in Arezzo! Arezzo is the capital of the eponymous province and one of the most under-rated towns in Tuscany.   It’s about a 40 minute drive from our house, but you can make it in 25 if you don’t run into a tractor, a truck, or a three-wheel Ape like this one somewhere along the way. Arezzo was one of the 12 most important Etruscan cities and claims Petrarch, Giorgio Vasari, Piero della Francesca, Michaelangelo (born nearby), Guido d’Arezzo (inventor of modern musical notation), Pietro Aretino (inventor of modern literate pornography), and Roberto Benigni among its famous residents.   There is a lot to see in Arezzo in the way of exceptional ecclesiastical art and architecture, a Roman amphitheater, a Medici fortress, and 14 th – 16 th c. palazzi.   You can read about all that here in Wiki an...

The House of Bourbon in Italy started out French, but through an alliance with Spain, became Spanish in what is today Southern Italy, culminating in the Kingdoms of Naples and the Two Sicilies.   Wading through the Britannica entry   on the House of Bourbon alone makes it crystal clear why there have been so many wars in Europe, why democratic elections are more secure than monarchical successions, and—in short—why Europeans fight so hard to keep the EU in one piece. The history of the House of Bourbon, one of the most illustrious and important dynasties of Europe, is as tortuous as the roads leading to Monte Santa Maria Tiberina, a former Bourbon outpost and our destination in this armchair travel. The patron saint of Monte Santa Maria Tiberina, as you may have guessed, is the Virgin Mary, and August 15, Assumption Day, is the town’s festival day.     Thanks to Peter Paul Rubens for this lovely depiction of the ascension of the Virgin. The to...